Replication stress

Replication stress is a stress occurring during DNA replication, typically resulting in a stalled replication fork. Replication stress can be due to DNA damage, excessive compacting of chromatin (preventing replisome access), over-expression of oncogenes, or difficult-to-replicate genome structures. ATM and ATR (kinases recruited and activated by DNA damage) proteins mediate replication stress. Replication stress can lead to genome instability, cancer, and ageing.